Do You Want to Walk the Onyx Path?

We’re looking for some new writers. That’s the long and short of it. We have some really awesome people working on our books right now, but the problem is that some of the same people are working on all our books, and that’s not a good situation long term. Leads to burnout and so forth. And having new perspectives and voices is a good thing.

Here’s the way this is going to work, then.

1) Digitally sign the submission NDA (attached to this post).

2) Attach that with your submission (see below) and send it to opp.submissions@gmail.com. Make sure you include your name, address, a quick CV with any other published work (especially for RPGs), and tell us what game line(s) you think you’d be best suited for.

3) Wait feverishly.

The Submission:

We’re looking for submissions no longer than 1000 words. Ideally, that’s 500 words of setting or fiction and 500 words of mechanics. If the proportions aren’t exactly even, don’t worry about it. What we’re really looking for are writers that can create compelling and evocative game material, and that know how the mechanics work.

Want to take a bloodline that appeared in a prior Requiem book and update it to GMC rules? Awesome. Want to make up a faction of mages and give them a few sample spells? Terrific. Write some flash fiction about an unnameable horror from the Deeps and then tell us how it works in a mechanical context? Great.

Some things to consider that are pretty much true across game lines:

1) “Affect” and “effect” trip a lot of people up. Know the difference.

2) “Loose” isn’t the same as “lose.” Know the difference.

3) Avoid using “there is” and “there are.” It’s a passive construction, but more than that, it doesn’t really tell us much. “There is a chair in the corner.” Yawn. “An overturned chair sits in the corner.” Better. At least we know something happened.

4) Different game lines shoot for different tones, but in general you want not quite as chatty as a forum post, not quite as formal as an essay. Don’t talk to the reader (this is OK is some circumstances, but generally don’t do it), and don’t begin sentences with “OK,” “See,” “Now,” “Look,” or “Hell.”

5) Taking inspiration is OK, but if I can recognize that your bloodline is just the Night’s Watch (or whatever) with the serial numbers filed down, that’s not good.

Sound good? OK, let’s see it. There’s no time limit on this; we’re always looking for good writers. But, y’know, the sooner you submit, the sooner we can read your submission. We will try to respond to all submissions with at least a “yes, we’d like to hire you, we’ll let you know when something comes up” or “sorry, your writing isn’t what we’re looking for right now,” but that’ll depend on how busy we get.

I have a project I would love to submit, but it is far more than 1000 words. Are you looking for samples of larger projects that are only 1000 words, or only for really small projects, that are complete with only 1000 words?

Sure, but again, sending your best stuff might be better than sending multiple submissions. If it were me, I’d send whatever I felt was most solid, and in the email say, “This submission is Werewolf, but I’d also like to work on Vampire, etc.”

No, seriously, though, it depends on what you mean. If you’re talking about converting something pre-GMC to GMC, that’s awesome. If you talking about a revision of an existing rules-set, that’s *ok*, but it’s not necessarily ideal because, like, we have a rules set and we’re not likely to do another heavy revision any time soon.

Is there any interest in expanding either Exalted or Scion? I intend to submit based on the requirements in the above posting, but I am also very interested in those other lines. If there is any intention to expand either line, will you assign new writers to them?

So, I don’t have any experience writing for RPGs, but I DO have an abundance of feature writing experience as a magazine journalist (bonus: I’m grammar savvy, because editors are scary otherwise). Worth shooting you 1000 words, or are you strictly looking for RPG chops?

Just for clarity: I would send you RPG stuff, but that’s not where my background lies. Would you base your decision on the quality of the sample I sent, or would my lack of background experience be the disqualifying factor?

Here’s the thing, though (and I’m speaking only for myself; other developers might feel differently): I have a lot of people I can tap to write fiction. It’s not that fiction’s easy, per se, but I don’t have as many talented mechanics folks as I do folks who can do setting or fiction. But what I really need is people who can do *both*, and weave them together.

That doesn’t mean, if you’re really mechanics-challenged, that you’ve got no chance. It just means you’ve got a slightly higher bar (with me, at least, but I’m only one developer).

Eolirin

February 22, 2014 at 3:16 pm

Wait, is there any use for people that are the opposite? Mechanically talented but fictionally challenged? Is a submission of (almost) only mechanics okay too?

It’s very hard to do pure mechanics with *no* setting at all. Even if you do a Gift list or something, you still have to write some evocative, interesting words, because otherwise it’ll just be “you can turn into a pig” and it’ll be boring.

(Porcine Gifts. G’head, y’all have that for free.)

Eolirin

February 23, 2014 at 12:20 am

Yeah, I said almost for a reason. It’s just, writing fiction is definitely very different than, say, evocative gift descriptions, or at least it is to me. You get to avoid things like narrative structure and characterization and dialog.

Obviously you have to be able to write, but it’s a different kind of writing. Is that still useful? To be able to do, say, an Arcanum level with spell effects, and be evocative about it, but not be able to do a short story?

Eolirin

February 23, 2014 at 12:33 am

Or, even, would it be useful and worth trying a submission that takes one of the Fiction Anthology stories and builds some mechanics based on the concepts in it (all original writing mind)? With no separate fiction/setting piece?

Matt, you have given me terrible, terrible ideas. Thank you. Or maybe you should start apologizing to Stew now. One of those.

Jonathan

February 22, 2014 at 11:19 am

Fiction and mechanics both sound easy to do. It’s that 1000 word ceiling that’s killing me (though I suppose some of my Uratha Gift ideas can be done in that but my 7.5k DtD character background is right out). 😀

We have a lot of writers who can write lots and lots of words. Brevity is a rare quality.

GregN

February 22, 2014 at 12:15 pm

The Bunnicula-Caine connection. Yes, it gets hairy.

Joshua

February 22, 2014 at 3:00 pm

Are pieces of a whole acceptable? Like if I were to post part of say my personal elder project would that be something you’d look at? And what about submitting multiple pieces?

Kevin

February 22, 2014 at 8:04 pm

Does CWoD mean just 20th book lines? Or older all of the old lines?

I’m interested in writing a submission for Hunter: The Reckoning.

IanW

February 24, 2014 at 6:15 pm

You could probably get away with it, but consider that this is our way of seeing if you’ve got what we want. A submission for Hunter won’t do that as well as a submission for a line we’re currently actively developing.

Kevin

February 24, 2014 at 7:41 pm

I thought as much, but I wanted to verify.

Thanks for verifying!

Kevin D.

February 22, 2014 at 8:07 pm

When you say we can submit for CWoD, does that include non-20th Anniversary lines?

I’d like to write something for Hunter: The Reckoning.

Walksforever

February 22, 2014 at 10:22 pm

Pity I just can’t say, read my FEAR Corp stuff of Mr Gone’s site and let me know, sadly it’s not the best of writing. Hmmmmm, I am going to have to really dredge to do only 1000 words.

GClaycomb

February 23, 2014 at 3:34 am

Quick Question of Clarification: Are you looking for Splat-info Fiction (i.e. descriptions of a Bloodline/Lodge/etc.) or more like Chapter Introduction Fiction?

Before I breakdown some of the Chronicle rules and setting for a Mage game I have been keeping going since 2007, I wanted to ask what being a writer entails? Writing is my dream, do I have to give up the military?

1. Time Consumption, does being a writer have a set amount of time that must be allocated?
2. How does pay work? Do you become an employee of Onyx Path? Do you become a freelance writer that gets paid for turning in completed documents?
3. Do you do it from home?

1. No. You have a word count and a deadline, and then you get redlines, and then you have a final draft deadline.
2. You’re paid per word based on a set word count. You’re not an employee, you’re a contractor (so you get a 1099 for tax purposes and you’re responsible for paying taxes on it). The way contracts are structured right now, you generally get 50% of the fee on final draft and the other 50% on publication of the work.
3. You can write anywhere you darn well please. I generally work at home, but I’ve been known to work at coffee shops when my corgi gets too annoying.

Any other positions you might be interested in? I’d love to help out but if i’m being honest i’m more of a storyteller/designer than I am a writer. I’m also good at finding mistakes and pointing them out (but you got armies doing that now :p)

Alexander Brown

February 23, 2014 at 8:58 pm

One thing I noticed is your requesting references to other things one has worked on in the RPG industry. If someone is wishing to send in a submission, but has no previous published works, do they have an equal chance on the “People have to get a start somewhere” theory, or are you only accepting from people who have previous experience in the industry?

Not having previous experience doesn’t give you a disadvantage, at least not with me (other developers may have their own criteria). We just want to know what people’s experience is like, and I’ll be honest, if your submission is awesome and I see you’ve worked on other games, I’m likely to check those games out. If your submission is awesome and I see you haven’t worked on other games, well, that’s keen, too. If your submission is crap and you’ve worked on other games, you don’t get a pass just because someone else was able to polish your work up to spec. Make sense?

Epimetheus

February 23, 2014 at 9:54 pm

Question, though the submission is only 500 words is possible to use a few more to describe why we did it the way we did if it isn’t just a direct conversion of mechanics if we go that route?

I actually wouldn’t know the difference. I couldn’t get past the kid getting pushed out of the window.

David

February 24, 2014 at 12:43 pm

Hello Mr. McFarland,

I’m really interested in submitting some work to you. I did have a few questions beforehand.

1- My experience is mainly concerning the classic World of Darkness (and the LARP version to boot!), and I shamefully admit to having pretty much zero knowledge of the current WoD, including the God-Machine Chronicle. Is there a place, somewhere, where I could possibly read up on the current trends and settings you are working on?

2- Do you have a preference on the version of game mechanics that we can submit? Like I stated earlier, I’m more of a LARPer myself, but I will write up game mechanics for tabletop versions if that is what’s preferred.

3- Is it acceptable to write up a small commentary before/after the submitted work, at least to say hello and present myself?

1) The God-Machine Chronicle Rules Revisions are available for free download on Drive-Thru RPG. That doesn’t provide the base rules engine (you need the World of Darkness Rulebook for that). That said, we need CWoD authors, too, so if that’s where your strengths are, submit CWoD material.

2) LARP/MES isn’t published through OPP, and I’m afraid I don’t know what the needs are for MES books.

Welp, submitted. Both excited and nervous and taking a stab because, well, we were invited to try ^^

Minkers

February 25, 2014 at 5:09 am

Hello everyone,

I’ve been pondering on my submission and I was thinking about writing up a small group (hunter cell, coterie, wolf pack) that could be easily dropped in any city or setting. Would those who walk the Onyx Path be interested in such a thing?

-Minkers

David

February 25, 2014 at 10:50 am

I think I read somewhere that they basically want to see how you write, not necessarily what you write about. If you, say, create some kind of super-secret, high-tech Hunter cell, they probably won’t hire you to write about that specific gang. I think they just want to see the type of text you can whip up.

Minkers

February 26, 2014 at 5:43 am

I understood OPP’s intention. I just wanted to know if it’s something they would be interested in reading. The fact that they don’t intend to use it doesn’t mean that I should waste their time by providing an article that isn’t something that they are looking for.

Need? Maybe not. If you have other publication credits, even if they’re academic rather than fiction, we’re interested, though.

Steffie

February 28, 2014 at 8:50 am

I have a question about the mechanics part of the submission.

Are you looking for brand new mechanics that work with the existing mechanics (an add-on of sorts)? Or more for new powers that function within the already existing mechanics? By that token, how about providing stats for creatures from the fiction part of the scenario. Since I can’t do all three within 500 words, I was wondering which would be valued most.

Actually, any of those are good. Of the three, I guess statting up a creature would be least effective in showing your mechanics-chops, but that doesn’t mean it would be a bad idea. Making a useful NPC is a good skill to have (I know I use the characters from the books when I run games).

I got an odd hiccup when sending my submission; the program popped up with an error indicating difficulty in sending, but it’s *also* showing that the message was sent. How long should I wait before querying about receipt, or resending?

I have two questions. Firstly, the lines for which I feel I could make an interesting submission have not received rules updates, to the best of my knowledge, but God Machine Chronicle compatibility is encouraged. If I wanted to write a submission involving, say, Changeling: the Lost, does that mean I should just integrate the core updates with the existing Changeling rules as best as I can? The answer seems like an obvious “yes,” but I just like making sure about this sort of thing.

Secondly, the linked style guide mentions a template document to follow if you are using Word, but I can’t seem to find the document, and the style guide seems to focus primarily on how to deal with not having a copy of Word. Is there a place to download the template document that I haven’t found?

Ok, seriously, where the hell is the NDA I’m supposed to sign? Am I just completely blind, because I’m not seeing it. I have a submission and I’d like to get it sent in, but I’ll be bludgeoned with a shovel and buried alive if I can find the damned NDA.

It’s at the very top of this post. Like, right below the “by Matthew McFarland” byline, there’s a link. It’s easy to miss, I grant you.

Jason Dennison

May 27, 2014 at 5:34 pm

Oh dear gods, I feel like a moron…I kept seeing that as “Forum” not “FORM” holy crap…seriously, I apologize. I feel like such a tool now

Ryan George Herden

June 30, 2014 at 3:46 am

So, I did a mildly unconventional submission, because I did what I thought I’d be really passionate about and such, as you’ll well know because hey, you’ll have it there in the inbox.

Should I write a second, more conventional one? I saw you mentioned somewhere that one good sub is better than ten sub par ones, but what about two hopefully really good ones, one that does what I want to write and one that does what you want to read?